A Point in a Person’s Heart

All the desires of an individual are as if lodged in the heart, because they are felt there in a physiological form. Therefore, our hearts are considered representative of all of the desires of the body, and of our essence. The changes in one’s heart’s desires reveal the changes in one’s personality.

From our birth, that is, from the time we appeared in this world, our hearts are occupied only with worries of the body; and only the desires of the body concern it. The heart is filled only with the desires of the body, and from them it lives.

But deep inside the heart, in the depth of all the desires, is a point that is hidden behind all the petty and temporary desires and is not perceived by us. It is the need for spiritual sensation. This point is a part of the Creator Himself.

If we consciously, through the power of our efforts to overcome and leap over the indifference and laziness of the body, seek in Kabbalah the ways to draw closer to the Creator, this point gradually becomes filled with pure and good desires. Thus, we gain the perception of the Creator on the first spiritual level, the level of the world Assiya.

Then, passing in his perceptions all the stages of the world Assiya, we can begin to perceive the Creator on the level of the world Yetzira, and so on, until we reach the Highest Level— the perception of the Creator on the level of the world Atzilut.

A Heart Filled with New Desires

Every time, we experience all our perceptions in the same inner point of our hearts. In the past, when our hearts were under the influence of the desires of the body, so the inner point in the heart received absolutely no perception of the Creator. We could only think about the desires that the body forced us to think about, and desire only that which the body forced us to desire.

Now, if we fill our hearts with pure and altruistic desires through prayers and requests and demands to the Creator for our spiritual redemption, we will begin to perceive the Creator. Then, we will be capable of thinking only about Him, since there have been born in us thoughts and desires related to that spiritual level.

Consequently, we always desire only that which we are forced to desire by the spiritual influence that we receive, in accordance with the stage at which we find ourselves.

Given the above, it becomes clear that we should not strive to alter our own thoughts, but must ask the Creator to alter them, since all our desires and thoughts are merely consequences of what we receive, or more exactly, of the degree to which we perceive the Creator.

Strengthening the Heart with the Mind

In regard to the entire creation, it is evident that all derives from the Creator, but the Creator created us with a certain degree of freedom of will. The ability to direct our desires appears only in those who reach the stages of ABYA. The higher we ascend spiritually, the higher our degree of freedom.

For the sake of clarification, we can compare the process of our spiritual development with the development of the material nature of our world. All of nature and the universe represent but a single desire for self-gratification. This exists in each individual to a varying degree, and as this desire increases, more advanced beings come into our world, because the desire induces the mind to work and develop the intellect for the satisfaction of one’s needs.

Our thoughts are always a result of our desires. They follow after them and are directed only towards the attainment of these desires, and nothing else. Along with this, thoughts possess a special role—with their help, we can increase our desires.

If we constantly deepen and expand our thoughts about something, and strive to constantly return to this thought, gradually this desire will begin to increase with respect to the other desires. In this way, we can alter the correlation of our desires. With constant thoughts about a small desire, we can increase it into such a large desire, it will overshadow all the other desires and determine our essence.

“How You Can Change what You Desire and Attain Spirituality” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.